The Local Government Assocation (LGA) is concerned only two chains have signed up to a code aimed at reducing salt in food

Councils have called on restaurants and pub chains to stop “dragging their heels” and sign up to salt reduction targets.

The Local Government Association (LGA) says just one restaurant group, Jamie’s Italian, which has an outlet in Cardiff, and one fast food chain, Subway, which has numerous outlets across Wales, have committed to Department of Health voluntary targets launched almost five months ago to cut salt in the ten most popular high street dishes.

Current guidelines recommend adults consume no more than 6g of salt a day.

But the LGA in a statement issued today said some restaurant and pub meals had been found to have up to 9g.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The Welsh Government seeks to encourage a healthy balanced diet as part of a healthy lifestyle. We continue to work with the UK Government to encourage the industry to continue measures to reduce the level of salt in food.”

Despite a considerable dip in salt consumption, experts say levels are still far too high and more needs to be done to reduce people’s intake.

The mean salt intake in England of 8.1 g/day in 2011 was still 35% higher than the recommended level of 6g/day, and 70% of the adult population (80% men and 58% women) had a daily salt intake above the recommended level.

Councillor Katie Hall, chairwoman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “The recommended daily target is 6g of salt per person - yet one pub or restaurant meal can take you well over this.

“Excessive salt is a major killer and not enough is being done to tackle it. Despite new targets set by government to bring restaurants in line with the rest of industry, they are lagging a long way behind. We think this is totally unacceptable.

“We need to tackle head-on excessive levels of salt in foods and the big high street restaurants and pubs chains need to get on board and commit swiftly.

“Many supermarkets have signed up to similar salt reduction government targets, which makes the reluctance of the restaurants even more surprising and indefensible.

“Government statistics show thousands of deaths from salt-related health issues like high blood pressure and strokes could be saved, along with hundreds of millions of pounds to the public health purse. This issue needs to be addressed by everyone in the food industry, quickly, comprehensively and above all robustly.”

Explaining the effect of salt on the bodyd, a spokesman for Blood Pressure UK said: “The amount of salt you eat has a direct effect on your blood pressure.

“Salt makes your body hold on to water. If you eat too much salt, the extra water stored in your body raises your blood pressure. So, the more salt you eat, the higher your blood pressure.

“The higher your blood pressure, the greater the strain on your heart, arteries, kidneys and brain. This can lead to heart attacks, strokes, dementia and kidney disease.

“Also, eating too much salt may mean that blood pressure medicines (such as diuretics) don’t work as well as they could.”